RD Lewis Holdings Inc. Takes $725,000 Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

RD Lewis Holdings Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm purchased 5,049 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $725,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in YUM. Flagship Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter worth $287,000. Parallel Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 5,011 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $672,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Cibc World Markets Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 15.5% during the 4th quarter. Cibc World Markets Corp now owns 44,122 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $5,919,000 after acquiring an additional 5,906 shares during the last quarter. GLOBALT Investments LLC GA lifted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. GLOBALT Investments LLC GA now owns 6,442 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $864,000 after acquiring an additional 112 shares during the last quarter. Finally, IMG Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter worth $77,000. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on YUM. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded shares of Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $140.00 to $135.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $146.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, TD Securities boosted their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $151.00 to $164.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Fifteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $150.95.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of NYSE YUM opened at $157.23 on Tuesday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $122.13 and a 1 year high of $163.30. The company’s 50-day moving average is $141.55 and its 200 day moving average is $137.23. The stock has a market capitalization of $43.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.12, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Investors of record on Friday, February 21st were given a dividend of $0.71 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.81%. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is currently 54.41%.

Insider Activity at Yum! Brands

In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 30,604 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.46, for a total transaction of $4,880,113.84. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 160,296 shares in the company, valued at $25,560,800.16. The trade was a 16.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, VP David Eric Russell sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.66, for a total transaction of $793,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 11,960 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,897,573.60. This trade represents a 29.48 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 44,839 shares of company stock worth $7,136,292 over the last 90 days. 0.31% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Yum! Brands Company Profile

Yum! Brands, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, develops, operates, and franchises quick service restaurants worldwide. The company operates through the KFC Division, the Taco Bell Division, the Pizza Hut Division, and the Habit Burger Grill Division segments. It also operates restaurants under the KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and The Habit Burger Grill brands, which specialize in chicken, pizza, made-to-order chargrilled burgers, sandwiches, Mexican-style food categories, and other food products.